Ben Affleck, the director and star of Argo, which as just won best director
and best film at the Golden Globes, has paid tribute to the real life CIA
agent who inspired the film.

Ben Affleck has paid tribute to the real-life agents and diplomats who featured in his Golden Globe-winning film, Argo.

Affleck, who also directed the film, plays a CIA agent who rescues six US diplomats from the Canadian ambassador's residence in Tehran in 1979.

"Really this award is about Tony Mendez. You saw him. He's an American hero. He represents the (US) foreign service making sacrifices every day for Americans. Our troops overseas. I want to thank them very much," he said.

Mendez is a now retired CIA technical operations officer, who wrote A Classic Case of Deception, a memoir about the operation dubbed the Canadian caper. In order to smuggle the diplomats out, the group posed as a Canadian film crew.

The movie has been accused of taking liberties with history, notably by exaggerating the role of the CIA in getting the US diplomats out, at the expense of the Canadian envoy in Tehran at the time.

But it was a vindication of sorts for Affleck, who was snubbed in the Oscar nominations announced last week, failing to win a best director nod.

Speaking backstage, George Clooney, a producer on Argo, admitted he was "disappointed," and that Affleck "should have been nominated" for the February 24 Oscars show. "It's disappointing, but we're not dead yet," he added.